#Success is not for the lazy #Mang2049

Open access can be good but… it can be bad as well.

“Open access” refer to information that is candidly available to all online users immediately upon publication, eliminating the need of subscription or payment.

[Source: Google]

Most college school have evolved from traditional classroom learning to internet learning which is known as “Open Education Resources”.

[Source: Blog Soton]

Let’s take “living on the web” as an example, we are required to conduct research online to find relevant sources to complete our blog posts. If all information are restricted, don’t we have to pay a hefty amount to get access to the articles in order to get our research done?

Putting aside college students, even researchers are leaning on the web to build on their discovery, therefore, this call for the need of open access model. Nick Shockeymentioned that scientists are very conservative and unresponsive to the idea of “openness”. However, there’s 2 sides to a coin, open access model will not solely disadvantage them but it’s also in favor of them.

2 types of Open Access Model

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Let’s watch a short clip regarding people’s idea about open access model

Now, what are the advantages of open access model?

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Enhanced author’s visibility and reputation

In this era, individuals are more inclined towards free goods/services thus when information is made available without any outlay, they’re more willing to view and use it. Increased number of people viewing and using the researchers’ information will in turn help to augment their profile and boost their reputation, which is crucial for impact of publications.

Increased citations

Findings have shown that one important benefit of open access model is impact, which is measured by the amount of times an article is being cited. With increased number of citations, individuals will perceive the information to more reliable and credible. Readan article whereby researchers prefer to use publications of other researcher with renowned reputation.

In this digital era, most individuals are relying on search engines to search for information to complete their work, particularlystudents. By providing them with limited access to a content, they are unsure of the relevancy of content and are unable to get a refund if the information is irrelevant (Nick Shockey).To gain full access to an article, a subscription fee is required however it should be understandable that students have low purchasing power. Therefore, content producers should make their articles free to allow students to capitalize on the information freely.

Disadvantages of open access model

(Source: Google)

Predatory Publisher

Emergence of predatory publisher is, by far the major disadvantage of open access model (@Dr Marilyn H). Predatory publisher refer to publisher who operate open access platform and charges researchers with processing fee in exchange to publish their articles. These predators provide fast publishing process, which will tantalize authors as they want their work to be published promptly. Additionally, predators will con authors by claiming to have published their articles on legitimate websites – but in fact, they promulgate it on wretched journals. This will cause an adverse effect on the researcher’s reputation as whatever they post online will go viral on the internet.

WHERE DO THE MONEY COME FROM??

How will researchers be compensated for their publication fee if they do not charge users for their articles? Researchers are allowed to apply for grants to pay for their publishing of their article, however, there’s certain situation where grant is not permitted. This pose another problem on lack of quality – Researchers will not be able to maintain the quality of their work if they’re financially strapped.

I wonder…

[Source: Google]

If researchers are not financially incentivized, are they still willing to exert the same amount of effort into their publications?